Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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San Francisco Examiner - May 6, 2005
Marisa Lagos, mlagos@examiner.com
The $3 billion public agency is the only voter-approved, taxpayer-funded state agency of its kind, and today's announcement should put San Francisco on the map as a world leader in not only stem cell research but the biotech industry as a whole. Civic and business leaders also hope it will bring an economic boom to the region, drawing to the Bay Area international and U.S. researchers whose home states are less friendly to the controversial research.
A 29-member board overseeing the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine named San Francisco the winner at its board meeting in Fresno today, following its own committee's recommendation. San Diego and Sacramento were runners-up; Emeryville, which made it to the top four, was eliminated by a committee of the board Monday.
When asked Thursday before the decision was announced, Dennis Conaghan, executive director of the San Francisco Center for Economic Development, said if San Francisco were chosen it would be "... fantastic. It's an absolutely wonderful, positive statement for San Francisco and further establishes the Bay Area as a center for life science research work."
The City's impressive $17 million package to woo the institute - an example of a public-private partnership - included such requirements as 10 years free rent and 2,600 free hotel rooms, as well as perks including 46,000 square feet of laboratory space, donated by the J. David Gladstone Institutes.
The City will house the CIRM at a 20,000 square foot office on the third floor of a mixed-use building at 250 King St., donated by local real estate broker Terry Fancher. Mayor Gavin Newsom hopes the institute's placement adjacent to UC-San Francisco's new Mission Bay campus will attract other biotech firms to the region. Since Newsom's term began in 2004, a handful of companies have moved their offices to The City, in part because of an exemption from The City's 1.5 percent payroll tax.
San Francisco's bid emerged early as a frontrunner and got a boost from community, business and political support. State legislators from the Bay Area endorsed The City, as did U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Once their cities were eliminated from the running, San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales and Emeryville Mayor Richard Kassis also threw their weight behind San Francisco's bid this week.
Competition was nevertheless fierce, and a committee of the CIRM board this week criticized San Francisco for its high cost of living and for not having a large number of biotech firms in its boundaries, as does San Diego. San Diego, viewed as The City's fiercest competitor, faced challenges of its own, however, including the resignation of Mayor Dick Murphy mere days before committee members toured the city.
The worth of San Francisco's bid also far outstretched the competition, with San Diego's valued at about $5 million less, in part because of an impressive $900,000 worth of free hotel rooms in The City.
The CIRM, the first state agency of its kind in the United States, will hand out $3 billion in taxpayer's money over the next 10 years for the controversial research, which was severely restricted by President Bush in 2001. The institute was created after 59 percent of California voters approved Proposition 71 in November.
Scientists hope that embryonic stem cells, which have the ability to change into any types of cells in the human body, could lead to treatments and cures for diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson's, cancer and HIV/AIDS. Pro-life groups object to the research because it requires the destruction of a days-old embryo to harvest the stem cells.
By law, the actual institute will house a maximum of 50 employees, a stipulation included in Proposition 71, to ensure that as much of the $3 billion as possible is used for research and infrastructure to house that research. But the headquarters is seen as a symbolic coup that could draw researchers and private institutes to The City from elsewhere.
Bruce Jenett, a member of the Mayor's Biotech Advisory Council, said Thursday he and the many other people who worked on The City's proposal would be "delighted," with the institute's decision.
He expected "that the results of the CIRM's work will have profoundly positive influences on the Bay Area economy as well as the state economy and more importantly on health care generally," he said.
He added that even with the institute located in San Francisco, "we also expect that other cities which were competing for the headquarters will benefit from funding and other efforts of the institute."
The CIRM board, called the Independent Citizen's Oversight Committee and made up of researchers from the private and public sector, educators and patient advocates, received the recommendation for San Francisco this week. Since last month, an eight-member committee of ICOC members worked to narrow the competition, first from 10 cities then to four and finally three, through an exhaustive application and evaluation process, which culminated last weekend with visits to the top four finalists.
The first six cities were eliminated after CIRM staff members determined their applications did not fit the request for proposals issued by the agency in March. Included was the request for 10 years of free office space, free and discounted hotel rooms and conference facilities and a proximity to a large pool of biotech workers.
Thirty days after the lease is signed, the institute can move in to the building. As part of The City's proposal, the world famous architectural firm Gensler agreed to design the space free of charge and to the CIRM's "precise specifications."
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